


Forbidden Love

by Katniss2000



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-05-26 11:28:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 11
Words: 11,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6236845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katniss2000/pseuds/Katniss2000
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucius and Narzissa Malfoy have been killed and Draco now has to live with Sirius Black.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> My mother tongue is not english - so please forgive me some mistakes - if too many should occur I suggest you don't read it or you help me.

„Please! Spare Draco’s life! His father’s failure is not his fault! Kill me instead!”, Narzissa begged. The dark lord spoke the killing curse.

“What?! I’m supposed to go to Sirius Black?! He is my legal guardian?!”, Draco called out enraged. “Yes, he is. I will take you to him”, Dumbledore answered.

“Good evening, Dumbledore!”, Harry said and added with a puzzled look on his face “What are you doing here, Malfoy?!” “I’ll live here. Get used to it!”, he explained. “But… Why the bloody hell?”, Ron asked upset.  
“Cause my parents and my aunt Bellatrix died because of you.”, the Slytherin said and it felt like the temperature in the room had sunk at least 10 degrees. Harry’s mouth stood wide open, but somehow Draco was right.  
Sirius killed Bellatrix and because Lucius failed to get the prophecy the dark Lord killed him and his wife. But it was their own fault. In the end they were the one’s getting involved with the darkest wizard of all times!  
“Oh, Granger, you’re here too?”, Draco asked in a condescending voice. “Yeah and I regret it since I saw your face here”, the girl answered . Draco was surprised about her poisonous remark, he knew a different side of her.  
Usually she was the one telling the boys to not start an argument, to stop breaking the rules.

“Hello, Draco. Kreacher, show him his room!”, Sirius welcomed him. He had not been aware of the consequences when he killed Bellatrix and he wasn’t pleased about being responsible for the snobbish boy. “Kreacher is very happy to be allowed to serve the young Master Draco. Finally there is a decent wizard in the house!”, Kreacher said while they were going up the stairs.


	2. Encounter in the bathroom

Draco stayed in his room most of the time, soon the summer holidays would end and he asked himself if the dark lord had anything planned for him. Eventually he was supposed to become a death eater just like his parents. The young man strongly hoped that he would be left at peace.  
Absently he opened the door to the bathroom and just realized that he wasn’t alone when a fist hit him in his face. Granger was standing in front of him – naked, seemingly she just wanted to get into the shower when he came in. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you to knock?!”, she shouted at him and tried to cover herself. “Sorry”, he mumbled, touched his cheek and left the bathroom. That hurt!  
At the top of the stairs Harry and Ron were standing, they had seen everything. “He’s peeping at Hermione!”, Ron’s voice came back first. The Gryffindors stared at him with disgust and just as Draco was trying to say something in his defence, Harry’s rant started and it didn’t stop in the next days. 

So the Slytherin was even more happier to get back to Hogwarts. He was so sick of being looked at with contempt and only being treated appropriately by a house elf! Although the blonde blamed the girl for not locking the bathroom, he couldn’t get this great sight out of his head! … She was not the little girl with the shaggy hair anymore, she was an attractive woman. So he actually was happy about the incident.  
After he had searched half of the train the young Slytherin finally found his friends. “Is it right that you saw Granger naked?”, Blaise asked approvingly. Draco only nodded, fell onto his seat and condemned the talkativeness of his fellow students. Pansy’s smile froze to ice, actually she wanted to spring at “her” Slytherin, but now she said coldly: “The mudblood should keep her dirty fingers off him!”   
But soon Pansy had calmed down and started chatting: “How were your holidays?” The guys shot a glance at each other and rolled their eyes simultaneously. Eventually Draco fell asleep and Crabbe woke him up when they had to leave the train. While they were getting into the carriages Blaise whispered: “You should have seen Pansy how she stared at you the whole time… I bet she wanted to snog you.” Draco grinned thinking of Pansy’s hit ons last year. Anyway here people appreciated his company…


	3. The Dream

Hermione lied on the bed only covered by a blanket, giving him a seductive look. He walked towards her and kissed her. “I love you, Draco”, she whispered.  
He woke up. Again! He kept dreaming of her! Sometimes they were staring at each other when they ate in the Great Hall, then they were kissing each other wildly, another time they had a date at Madam Puddifoot’s.   
But this time the dream was more intense than usually. He hated himself for dreaming such things. It made him go crazy. Hermione of all people had to haunt him even in his dreams!

Although it was quite early – sun wasn’t up yet, Draco decided to get up. He enjoyed having the whole bathroom for himself, enjoyed the silence. Finally he could organize his thoughts. Maybe he would find out why he had these dreams…   
By now he cursed the incident with Granger. It was likely that he would not have had this dream problem if she wasn’t too dumb to lock the damn door! A walk seemed to be the right thing to do now, the Slytherin left the castle and the sun rose.   
It was a beautiful, nearly magical morning he thought by himself and walked over to the lake. He should to the library he might find some useful advice against these dreams.

After he sat down on a bench at the lake and watched the glistening sun rays on the water, he heard a noise behind him in the woods. Draco turned around: Fenrir Greyback was standing in front of him. The death eater looked at him sullenly.   
“Why don’t you answer our messages?!”, he snapped at him. What messages?, Draco thought, he didn’t get any.   
As the man saw how confused the boy was, he snarled: “This damned… It’s time to get rid of him!” The Slytherin groaned on the inside, his hope was destroyed, the dark lord had chosen him to play his servant in his parents stead. It seemed like he was supposed to kill someone… The thought of it did not please him.   
Fenrir explained: “We already assumed that Dumbledore retained our messages. The boss wants to get rid of him, so he can concentrate on Potter. He wants you to take care of it. Doesn’t care how you do it. After all you’re the closest to him. You can even go to the headquarters of the order of the phoenix!” “…What if I don’t want to?”, Draco asked hesitant. Fenrir laughed: “It’s not like you have a choice, boy! Don’t be a coward!” The student nodded. The death eater got up from the bench, got into the woods, away from the school grounds and disapparated.

Draco’s mood was at its lowest. The morning had started so great and now this! He took that as a bad sign: Getting up early wasn’t good. The blonde decided to talk to Blaise after breakfast he would surely know how he could duck out or do it quickly and painlessly. But he didn’t want to talk about the other thing: the dreams. Blaise would probably laugh at him. Dreaming of a relationship with a mudblood! Ridiculous!


	4. Discussions with friends

During breakfast Draco was noticeable distant even Crabbe and Goyle noticed. As the blonde was about to bite in his yummy toast with honey, Blaise asked him: “Could it be that you’re staring at a certain Gryffindor or is it just me…?”   
Draco choked on his toast and started coughing hectically he shook his head and looked around nervously. Happily nobody seemed to have heard the comment.

After breakfast Draco wanted to disappear quickly, cause he didn’t want to talk to Blaise anymore, but he stopped him: “I need to talk to you for a second.” His friend looked at him with astonishment and raised his eyebrow. The Slytherin pulled him around the corner, looked around stealthily to make sure nobody caught what they were talking about. “Something seems to be wrong with you lately – especially this morning you are acting weird, so unlike you”, Zabini said.   
“Well… you are not that wrong…”, Draco started. “I’m right?”, Blaise sounded surprised and added “Actually I only wanted to twit.” “Yes, you were right”, Draco admitted, he was feeling unwell. “Why…?”, the boy had already thought that Draco had downplayed the encounter in the bathroom and that something was different since then.   
“I… I can’t get her out of my head. I often dream of her… the ‘special’ kind of dream”, the guy explained. Blaise grinned: “Man, it’s time you get yourself a girlfriend!” Draco snorted angrily. “A Gryffindor of all people, you fall in love with Granger of all people. You could have every girl, but your heart chose her!”, he kept teasing. “I’m not in love with her!”, the boy defended himself a little louder than planned. Some Ravenclaws who were just leaving the Great Hall turned around curiously. “Well… You just have these dreams. Without any meaning.”, the black boy said and Draco rolled his eyes and murmured: “Shut up…”   
He was about to leave mortified, but Blaise held him back and promised: “I’ll help you, buddy. No matter if she’s a mudblood or not. You deserve to be happy with an intelligent, beautiful witch”, apparently Blaise was convinced that Draco only was too proud to admit his feelings for Hermione. “You should better go search the library for spells or potions against such nightmares, then I’ll be happy…”, Draco answered.

“We better get to class, first lesson’s about to start” Blaise said. Draco nodded and whispered: “This morning I went for a walk to get my head clear again. Guess who I met! Fenrir Greyback! I’m supposed to take care of Dumbledore – if you know what I mean…” “We’ll find a solution”, Blaise said confidently. The young witch walked past them, Draco watched her pass and didn’t notice that he sighed.

This morning the Gryffindor went for a walk as she did usually and coincidentally she saw Malfoy talking to a man, who seemed to be a death eater at the lake. Was Harry right? Was she supposed to tell harry and Ron about this incident? Or was it not what it looked like? Lost in her thoughts she walked back to the castle and nearly stumbled over Malfoy, who didn’t even notice her, cause he was so upset as he ran back to the dungeons.

During breakfast she told her friends what she had witnessed: “As I was taking a walk outside this morning I saw Malfoy talking to a strange man and they looked quite suspicious.” “You saw what?! I was right! Malfoy’s up to something! Damned death eaters…”, Harry screamed shocked, but he had this ‘I told you so’ look on his face. “He didn’t seem pleased about the meeting…”, Hermione submitted, but then stopped herself.   
Why was she defending Malfoy? Malfoy of all people, the one who had hated her from the beginning onwards! She would never forgive him the incident in their second year of school when he had called her a mudblood!   
But on the other hand… Did she have the right to judge him? None of them actually knew Malfoy, who knew if he was just acting like he shared his parents’ opinions, who knew if he really was up to something? Maybe the stranger at the lake was just a friend of the family, someone close to Draco. Now that his parents were dead, he didn’t really have anybody. The girl pitied him.   
Actually the death of the most known, most feared death eaters was a reason for joy, but it turned Malfoy’s life upside down – certainly not as he would want it to be. Nobody would animate him to agitate against half-bloods, muggleborns and bloodtraitors. Nobody would teach him muggleborns like Hermione were worth less than people like him. Could he be changed or was he already lost?

“Hermioneee”, Harry noticed that she was lost in her thoughts and tried to get her attention “Do you think I’m right or not?” “I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening”, she said “What were you saying?” “If you think we should keep an eye on Malfoy.” “Sounds as if you want to stalk him”, she avoided answering the question. “Hm”, Harry meant something similar to stalking him, so he stopped asking.   
Hermione looked over to the Slytherin table as inconspicuously as possible. Usually the blonde guy was laughing and enjoying the girls admiring him – he really deserved the name “Slytherin-prince”, Hermione thought, as lordly and snobbish he was normally acting. But today he starred at his toast and avoided to look at the others. Did the conversation with this guy put him in such a bad mood? It was odd for the witch to see him so introverted.   
Suddenly he raised his eyes and it seemed like he was looking at her directly. Hermione shuddered so intense was his look. But no, that was impossible surely he wasn’t looking at her, rather staring at Harry hatefully. But there was no hate in his eyes just… despair? She couldn’t interpret his look, but she wanted to find out if he truly was who he seemed to be.


	5. First approach

Today the third and fourth lessons were potions – with the Slytherins. Hermione was worried what the day would bring, after breakfast Harry didn’t stop talking about his conspiracy theories about the ‘mysterious’ meeting. He also didn’t stop insulting Malfoy. Here and there she had tried to calm him, but he wouldn’t stop and his theories got more and more odd.   
Ron thought it was funny and when she pushed him searching for his help in history, he only laughed and said she should just let him, if it was making him happy he could clamor as much as he wanted to. The girl rolled his eyes and Harry looked at her with triumph in his eyes. A little later Gryffindor lost five points, because he kept talking instead of paying attention.

The Gryffindors went to the potions classroom in the dungeon and when they entered the classroom the Slytherins were already sitting on their seats, Harry was staring at Malfoy and the girl thought he would talk to him about what she had seen this morning, but to her ease he didn’t. “Ahh, there you are. Finally. There are no special rules for you. You have to be on time just like everyone else!”, professor Snape said. Hermione looked at her watch, one minute late. “Sorry…”, she started but the teacher interrupted her: “Ten points deduction from Gryffindor.” Then he smiled and while the three students were sitting down they shared a look: Snape was so unfair! If the Slytherins were late, he’d never say anything!

The professor started the lesson, today they were supposed to brew the draught of peace. The students began getting the ingredients, it was a little chaotic. “Put your essays about moonstone on my desk.”, the professor demanded. The Gryffindor girl walked to the front of the room and put hers on the desk.   
Snape took the essay, examined it critically and laughed: “30 inches parchment? You don’t think you’ll get a better mark for it, do you? I don’t like swots! 15 points deduction!” Hermione lost her face, how could anyone be so mean?! Still she couldn’t say anything, if she didn’t want to lose more points. Today was a miserable day for Gryffindor, she didn’t want to know how many house points they would have lost until the evening!

Malfoy marched to the desk with his head held high and gave Snape his essay. Snape praised him: “27 well formulated inches parchment! That’s how I like it!” The witch gaped. What an insolence! She expected Malfoy to stick out his tongue or provoke her in any way, but he just went to his seat and started brewing.   
Just as she was sighed relieved and wanted to attend to brewing she heard a voice near her ear: “Swot”. She turned around, Crabbe was standing in front of her, she threw an angry look at him and said to herself ‘He is not worth it. Ignore him!’ So she turned back around, heard Crabbe and Goyle laugh, but added steamed mandragora quietly.   
A few minutes later she heard Snape say: “Another ten points deduction from Gryffindor! Potter, how many trolls are you going to collect?! Potions is a subject just like any other: You have to do something if you want to pass exams! To pass these exams you have to pay attention and DO YOUR HOMEWORK!”

At the end of the lesson the students were supposed to present their potions. Hermione’s potion had the required white colour, but Harry’s potion was rather muddy brownish – although Hermione had done her very best to help him. “What is that supposed to be?”, Snape asked looking at Harrys ‘potion’. “A failed draught of peace?”, Harry responded rueful. “Failed is not an expression for this anymore!”, Snape talked himself into a rage “If you had written your essay, you would have known how much moonstone powder has to be stirred in! What else did he miss?”   
Nobody raised his or her hand, everyone was sunk down in their seats and watching the scene with fear – nobody wanted to give a wrong answer now. But if nobody answered, Snape would get angrier, Hermione thought, so she said with a low voice: “I think he forgot to add syrup of hellebore.” “Correct”, the professor panted “But ten points deduction, cause you obviously don’t think it’s necessary to raise your hand before you talk!”

 

Draco felt weird. He looked forward to the potions lesson – but not because he enjoyed seeing Snape take away points from Gryffindor, what happened nearly each lesson – but because he would see Granger. His feelings confused him. Did he have feelings for the witch? Was Blaise right after all? Or did he just hope seeing her at school could make his dreams disappear?   
The lesson started and Granger wasn’t here. Same went for Weasley and Potter. Strange, usually the witch was never late. Did something happen to her? It wouldn’t surprise anybody, the two boys were always getting into trouble and getting the girl also into trouble. The Slytherin could have slapped himself for these thoughts, since when did he care about the well being of mudbloods??? Of did he just care about the well being of this mudblood? First one would definitely be better! The three Gryffindors rushed into the classroom. Snape immediately started grumbling.   
Usually Draco would be very satisfied that they had already lost ten points before the lesson had started. But today he didn’t enjoy it. He just wanted Snape to start the lesson and leave them alone. Being late could happen to everyone after all.

After that the students should put their essays on the desk and again the professor found a reason to take away points from Gryffindor – now because of Grangers essay, which was ‘too long’. The girl seemed hurt and he pitied her. As he put his essay onto the desk he thought ‘Today Snape’s in a really bad mood – We may as well expect the worst! Poor Hermione… He should rather pick on Potter, at least he deserves it!' Stop! Did he just call Granger Hermione? How embarrassing! These dreams were really getting under his skin… Bamboozled he stumbled back to his seat and didn’t actually hear Snape praise him. What was going on with him?!   
As he saw Vincent and Gregory making fun of Hermione, he couldn’t hold himself back, she looked so hurt and angrily and he felt sorry for her, so he hissed: “Vincent! Stop that shit! You should rather start brewing!” His friend looked at him surprisedly, but didn’t say anything. Draco looked over to the other table, Hermione didn’t hear him – luckily! How would that have looked… Draco Malfoy defending a mudblood! Although… She was more than a mudblood…Hardly and witch – pureblood or muggleborn – was as intelligent as she was.

When the teacher took away more points for Potters not existent essay, he couldn’t get a hold of himself and made fun of him. Hermione gave him an angry look and he was sorry. Should he apologize after the lesson? No… that was too absurd!  
At the end of the lesson the professor examined their potions, he paused at Potter’s and started getting upset about its brownish colour – the same colour Millicent’s and Gregory’s potions had, but the teacher didn’t care about that. Nobody dared to answer Snapes question what Potter had forgotten. Then Hermione answered – and he immediately took away more points! The witch had tears in her eyes and Draco’s heart started melting…

The bell rang, the lesson had ended and she ran out of the classroom. Draco hurried packing his stuff and didn’t care about the confused looks of Crabbe and Goyle or the knowing look in Blaise’s face when he went after her. When he finally outran her, she turned around and he thought: ‘Shit! I don’t know what to say… what do I say? What do I say?’ Hermione snapped at him, but he seemed to find the right words and her expression got softer, he even thought he had seen a smile on her beautiful lips as she said thank you and left. He stood there in the middle of the corridor like a damned, lovestruck idiot and watched her leave. Wait! What? Lovestruck?

 

Furious and frustrated the witch marched out of the classroom without waiting for Harry or Ron. Snape was such an asshole! Someone touched her shoulder so she turned around. Malfoy was standing behind her. “What do you want?! Come to rub salt in my wound?!”, she snapped at him. “Erm… No, actually…”, the boy balked “I… well… I wanted to say sorry for Vincent’s behavior. He didn’t mean it… I’m sorry that Snape took out his bad mood on you. 45 points is much.” Her face brightened up. “You… you don’t have to say sorry for Crabbe’s behavior, it’s not your fault”, she answered confused. What was happening? “I know, but I felt sorry for you…” “Oh… Okey, thank you.”, she responded and hurried back to the Gryffindor common room, although she actually wanted to fling her arms around Malfoy’s neck.


	6. Jinxed!

“Was that Malfoy?”, Harry asked Hermione. “Erm, yeah…”, she answered. It was an awkward situation. “…And? What did he do? What did he say to you?!”, Ron was curious. “He said sorry for his behavior”, Hermione explained. The boys looked at each other: Is she kidding us? “I am just as confused as you are”, she added and fell into an armchair in the common room, which they had reached by now. They spent the rest of the day doing their homework and nothing else weird happened. But of course Malfoy’s behavior was discussed extensively by Ron and Harry.

The last week had been exhausting, now that Snape wasn’t only teaching potions but also defence against the dark arts, they were truly drowning in homework – even Hermione thought this was too much. Not to mention the amount of house points that they had lost! The teacher didn’t even care about Harry’s great accomplishments since he had the mysterious book of the ‘halfblood prince’. Harry had lost all shyness regarding the spells in this book and even tried them on Ron – which deeply displeased Hermione. The more she looked forward to their first Hogsmeade trip this year. She hoped to get her head free of school stuff and drink a few butterbeers without her friends being in mischief.

As the witch looked out of the window of the common room her good mood slightly disappeared: Outside there was a little snowstorm. They waited until the storm settled itself and hit the trail. Ron spoke his mind: “Do you think Malfoy has a crush on you?” Hermione and Harry looked at him horrified and started laughing. “How did that idea come up?”, she couldn’t get a hold on herself. “Well… Why else should he be that nice? Maybe he’s trying to hit on you. After all you’re beautiful and smart…”, he tried to justify his thought, then his face turned red as he realized what he just said. “So what? Maybe he’s not as rude as he usually acts. It doesn’t mean anything!”, Hermione repelled him. But then their laughter got stuck in their throats: Zonko’s was closed!

Their mood only got better as they were sitting in the Three Broomsticks with butterbeer. Hermione was lost in thought, she couldn’t forget what Ron said earlier. Could it be that Draco wasn’t just being nice to her but wanted something from her? Actually she thought his apology was really sweet – although she would have never admitted it in front of anybody. And he had never looked bad. What was she thinking?! ‘What if Draco Malfoy the son of two deatheaters would fall in love with a muggleborn?’ Silly! The more butterbeer she drank, the easier it was to forget the pretty, blonde guy. So she was half-cut and buzzed when they left and got on their way back to the castle.

Hermione was a little wobbly on her legs, but as they heard a bloodcurdling scream the young woman was in her right senses again. They looked up and saw Katie flying in the air and screaming a few dozen meters in front of them. Paralyzed by fear they looked up to her then she fell back to the floor. Harry ran to her, Hermione barely knew her, but Harry was befriended with the chaser of his Quidditch-team. “Katie? Are you okay?”, he yelled and shook her a bit, but she wouldn’t wake up. “What happened?”, asked Hermione Katie’ friend Leanne. “I… I don’t really know. She got this package – in the girl’s bathroom in the Three Broomsticks”, she started explaining and pointed on the package which had fallen to the floor. A necklace was shimmering out of it. “She was supposed to give it to someone, but not tell anyone about it. It was strange to me, we argued about what to do. I tried to reason with her, take the package away from her, told her we should tell McGonagall about it, but she wouldn’t listen… And then… well you saw how it ended.” While Leanne had explained everything, Ron had run back to the Three Broomsticks to get Hagrid, who brought the unconscious Katie back to the castle to the hospital wing. The four Gryffindors got on their way to Professor McGonagall to tell her what had happended.

“I’m sure that was Malfoy!”, Harry called out angrily. “Why should Mr. Malfoy …?”, the Professor asked confused. “I know he’s planning something! Right now I don’t have any proof, but you’ll see…”, Harry was very confident. Hermione just rolled her eyes. “Draco doesn’t bear the blame of all evil! You’re taking it too serious. You don’t even know him!”, she defended him and realized a moment too late what she had just said. She wished she could take her words back: She didn’t just defend him, she also called him Draco. “Well… none of us knows him…”, she tried to save the situation, but it was already too late. Both Harry, Ron and Leanne and Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape, who was present to examine the necklace which had obviously been cursed, were staring at her surprised. ‘First Ron’s comment, then the necklace and now this embaressment… It’s must be jinxed!”, the witch thought.


	7. The failed try

It would be a stressing weekend, Draco had been looking forward to his time off in Hogsmeade, but he knew he would have to get his task done as soon as possible! Otherwise Fenrir or the dark Lord himself would come visit him and give him hell.

Together with his friend Blaise he made up a plan. Draco had remembered his summer holidays before their second year of school, he had been shopping at Knockturn Alley with his parents. Back then this gloomy place had just bored him, but if he had been alone, he would have been scared of all the gruesome figures one could meet there. He had remembered the shop Borgin & Burke’s, where he had seen a magic artifact which had fascinated him: An opal necklace, which was supposed to kill his owner – 19 muggles had already been its victims. He just hoped that the necklace hadn’t been sold in these years or that he would find something equally useful.

The Slytherin got on his way to Hogsmeade early despite the snowstorm. In an abandoned back lane he apparated to Diagon Alley. First he would go to Gringotts to get enough Galleons. The opal necklace wouldn’t be cheap and he already knew from his father that Mr. Borgin sold every artifact over the price it was worth. Even of his father, who had been a good businessman he got the better from time to time. The goblins in Gringotts had strengthened the safety precautions, since the wizarding world was nearly overrun by all kinds of gruesome figures. There was a long queue in front of Draco.

After the young man had waited for half an hour, tapping on the floor with his food and looking up to the big clock, because he was both annoyed and bored, it was too much. He shoved the two witches in front of him who were chatting eagerly to the side and stood in front of the wizard whose turn it would have been, if Draco hadn’t intervened. “It is intolerable that one has to wait so long”, he said to the goblin, who examined him critically. As expected, he did not get any special treatment now that his father was dead. He would have to establish his reputation he would need to earn respect from everyone. The goblin started a try of rejecting him: “Sir, I must ask you to go back to your place in line and wait just like everyone else.” Draco was brassed off, he was already stressed and he did not stand for any nonsense now. So he used the fact that his parents had been well known as deatheaters and everyone was already suspecting him to be one too and hissed: “Do you even know who I am? Do you think it is wise to let someone like me wait?!” The face of the goblin changed, first it seemed as if he was offended and wanted to go get his superior to throw Draco out, but then he answered: “Of course not, Mr. Malfoy. Your wand, please…?” “You can skip that. I want to get to my vault NOW. Some people have business to attend to and do not have any time to waste”, he denied him. “Okay. Please, follow me”, the goblin said. The rest of the usual procedure didn’t take long: the ride to his vault, the opening of the vault and the amazing view of the bulging Malfoy-familyvault. That was the advantage of his parents’ death: He did not just have access to his own vault, but the whole fortune of his family.

He turned to the side-street at a hurried pace and got into the shop. A small bell which hung over the door rang and announced his arrival. Draco looked around most artifacts were covered in dust and seemed shoddy. This was not a place he liked to spend his time at. Mr. Borgin came towards him: “Ahh, the young Mr. Malfoy! What an honor! My condolences for your parents, they were extraordinary wizards and especially your father was a welcomed customer!” He was as duplicitous as ever. Draco had to suppress a contemptuous sniff he was too strained to return the duplicitous friendliness, so he just asked: “As I was here some time ago you had a necklace…?” “Yes, yes, I’m sensing you mean the opal necklace, a beautiful thing with incredible abilities! It is still here, follow me, Sir”, the hunchbacked man answered and the face of the Slytherin lightened up. One worry less! “Here it is”, Mr. Borgin blew off the dust of it, coughed a little and held it up with his gloves. “How much?”, Draco asked. “34 Galleons and 2 Sickles”, the man answered. Draco was not in the mood to negotiate, so he just nodded and inspected a Hand of Glory, while Mr. Borgin wrapped the necklace. “I also want to buy the Hand of Glory”, he said. “35 Galleons”, the greasy salesman grinned. The Slytherin payed, got out of the shop and apparated back to Hogsmeade.

He got inside the Three Broomsticks and sighed relieved as he saw Blaise had already gotten them a table. Draco sat beside him and smiled at him with triumph. “So it was still there”, the black concluded. The Slytherins waved Madam Rosmerta over to them, first they ordered two butterbeers afterwards Draco whispered “Imperio”. Madam Rosmerta listened carefully and nodded as he said: “Would you be so kind to give this package to…”, he looked around to see which of his unsuspicious schoolmates was also at the Three Broomsticks, then he saw Katie, who seemed to be on her way to the girl’s bathroom “Katie Bell. Tell her to give it to Dumbledore and only Dumbledore, but do not tell him, who she got it from. Make her believe you are a secret admirer of him or whatever, I don’t care how you do it. The important thing is that Katie doesn’t think it is suspicious.” She took the package and went in the direction of the bathroom. The curse had worked. “Isn’t that strange?”, Blaise couldn’t hold back a comment. “One of the greatest wizards of our time is as good as dead. Achieving that is not a problem for you, but admit to yourself that you have feelings for a girl is too difficult!” Draco punched him a little.

Towards evening the two boys were in their common room. They sat in cozy chairs next to the fireplace and did their last homework, as Pansy stormed into the room: “Did you hear the news? Katie Bell got cursed! Even Madam Pomfrey couldn’t help her! Now she’s at St. Mungo’s!” The boys looked at each other in shock.


	8. The Dispute

So it would be more difficult than they had thought. At least everyone talked about the incident so the deatheaters would know too and nobody could accuse him of still not having tried to kill Dumbledore. And Draco got a step further with his feelings. He knew now that he wanted to get to know Hermione. No matter if just to get rid of the dreams and be able to hate her like before.

Soon there would be the christmasball and he didn’t have a date yet. Of course he could’ve just asked some girl from his own house, none of them would have said no and many would have started a fight to be his date for the ball, but he didn’t want any of those girls. He wanted Hermione to be his date. On the one hand this would be an opportunity to come to know her and on the other hand he wanted to score off Potter for his comments and he wanted to prove himself that he could even get girls like Hermione.

As he finished his homework and packed his things he saw her. Hermione was sitting next to a window in the library alone, staring outside seemingly lost in thought. That was his chance! Confidently he walked over to her: “Hey, do you already have a date for the ball?” First she winced, jolted out of her daydreams she stared at him and asked: “What??!” The Slytherin first thought she would start a fierce discussion about their encounter in the bathroom, but surprisingly she didn’t. “Would you wanna go to the ball with me?”, he asked again. “Oh”, she had not expected this question “Well… I would, but don’t you think it would be … weird?”, she blushed. Draco grinned, she was so sweet when she was shy. “The others…”, she started, but the blonde guy interrupted her. “Do we care what others think of this?” Then he winked at her and disappeared.

Hermione sat on her chair befuddled, Ron and Harry entered the library: “Hey could you help us with the potions homework? Gryffindor already lost enough points…” “Sure…”, she mumbled and handed over her homework. She was confused. Why did she say yes? Why did he even ask her? Was that one of Draco’s plans to prove to everyone how great he was? Maybe she should go and search him, tell him she had changed her mind? No, that wasn’t proper. Furthermore she was curious how the real Draco was. Just… how would Harry and Ron react? She didn’t want to find out…

A little later an angry Pansy stomped over towards Draco, who was just telling Blaise that Hermione would go to the ball kind of flustered, with him in the Slytherin common room. “So you’re going to the ball with Granger?!”, she hissed “Or is that just another lie of this filthy bitch to tear us apart?!” Draco sunk down in his armchair, the usually so proud Slytherin-prince tried to make himself as tiny as possible. Pansy usually was a nice girl, but at such things she was a fury! Additionally she basically thought of Draco as her future husband because of their blood status and good relationship of their parents. Draco saw that differently and was very happy that his parents were no longer able to influence him regarding such matters. He nodded and got ready for another furious outbreak. “Why not me?! Am I not good enough for you?! As if this insult was not enough, Millicent told me!”, she shouted at him and all of the Slytherins stared at her surprised “You are dead for me! DEAD!” Then she ran into her dormitory and Draco thought he saw tears in her eyes. The Slytherins started whispering secretly. That was the worst thing to happen! He looked over to Blaise seeking help, but he just looked amused. “What am I supposed to do now?”, he asked him. Pansy was annoying from time to time, still he didn’t want to lose her as a friend. “Talk to her”, the black student suggested. That’s how far Draco had also gotten, just – what would he say to her?

Carefully he knocked on the dormitory’s door, Pansy didn’t answer so he opened the door. “Pansy?”, he asked into the room. He heard her sob in her bed, but she still didn’t answer. Okay… What could he say now? The truth, that it obviously was his choice with whom he would go to the ball and that it had been naïve to think he would always only do things with her? Saying this would probably backfire… What could possibly calm her? A promise to go to the next ball with her? That was probably the best option he had. “Pansy, it’s not the world’s end… You’re still my favorite girl”, he tried to calm her “I’ll go to the next ball with you. Promised! And we’ll buy a pretty dress for you…” The witch set upright, her face was puffy from crying, nevertheless she looked angry. Draco feared she would curse him, but she just threw a pillow at him and shouted he should get out so loudly Draco thought Snape would rush in any second to rebuke them. He went back into the common room looking resigned, Blaise looked at him with sympathy, the other Slytherins tried very hard not to laugh.

Hermione would also have much hassle because of her choice to be Draco’s Date: The next morning she sat next to Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor-table, still thinking about the occurrence of the last evening – of course without getting to any conclusion. “Tell me: Why have you been so reflective since you were in the library yesterday?”, Ron asked the witch. Ginny giggled. Hermione’s eyes widened. Did she witness everything??? Hectically she portended her to shut up. “What’s going on? What does she know we are not allowed to know?! Why are you keeping secrets from us?”, Harry was mistrustful. Hermione tried to talk herself out of it: “Girlstuff?” Damn! That didn’t sound convincing at all. Ron frowned. “What are you hiding, Hermione?” “Nothing…” “Are you sure it’s nothing?” “I’m very sure it’s nothing!” “It didn’t sound like nothing…” Hermione rolled her eyes: Sooner or later they would find out anyways, so why not now? “Draco Malfoy asked me if I’ll be his date for the ball.” Ron choked on his food. “He did what?!”, Harry called out first astonished, then indignantly. “He did WHAT?! How can he dare to throw himself at you?!” Hermione blushed in a very dark red: “I… well… I said yes.” Ron started coughing. Ginny tapped on his back, as soon as he stopped choking on the food he screamed: “You’re kidding us! Bloody hell! That’s not funny, Hermione!!!” Ginny shook her head: “I saw it, it’s the truth!” “Traitor!”, Harry snorted despicably. The first students looked over to them. Ron slipped away from the girl: “All these years we hated him and he hated us. Did you forget all of it?! Second year when he called you a mudblood?! A few weeks ago when he peeped on you?! Now don’t tell me you like such a guy!” His voice cracked. By now they had the attention of every student and teacher. Some of them seemed surprised, others startled or pitying, most of them looked amused. Draco had also watched the scene and decided to talk to Hermione about it.


	9. Consolation

Hermione got up and ran out of the Great Hall. She had a crush on Draco. So what?! What was wrong with that?! There were probably a couple dozen girls in Hogwarts who had a crush on Draco! Or was she more than just a little attracted to him? After all she risked a fight with her friends, just to go on a date with him. The girl didn’t know what to do. Go back into their common room? Impossible! Their dispute would only go on. But she also didn’t want to go to her lessons after all this. It was not like her at all. She was already on her way to moaning Myrthle’s bathroom, when she realized where she could go: Hagrid could probably cheer her up!

She ran over to Hagrid’s hut, still with tears in her eyes and knocked on the door timidly. Hagrid opened the door: “Oh, Hermione, where did ya leave Ron and Harry? Come in, come in. I’m just makin’ some tea.” Then he saw the tears and pulled a huge tissue out of his pocket: “What happened?” He gave her the tissue and she blew her nose noisily. “Draco asked me if I wanted to be his date for the Christmasball.” Hagrid didn’t seem surprised at all: “I’ve suspected it would come to this since your second year. I guess the guys weren’t that happy for ya…? Want some tea?” “Not at all! They made a huge scene about it and the whole school saw it! Yes, please, but with sugar”, she sobbed hurt. Hagrid put a small cup of tea on the table: “They’ll calm down soon!” The half-giant didn’t like Draco since the incident with buckbeak, but for him it was more important that Hermione was happy.

As he was finished with breakfast, Draco still had some time until school would start, so he decided to search for Hermione. Where could she possibly be? Then he remembered their third school year and he knew where to start his searching. He strolled over the grounds and thought about how to talk to her. Would it be best to offer her to be someone else’s date? That seemed to be a good idea – although he didn’t want that. Finally he reached the hut.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Hermione looked up in shock. That must have been Harry and Ron searching for her! They were the last people on earth she wanted to see right now! Hagrid looked at her and pointed at the back door. He slowly went to the door and opened it, Hermione jumped up her seat and wanted to go out of the back door – but because she got up so hastily she spilled the tea on her jeans. She heard a voice say: “Erm… Hello, is Hermione here?” It was Draco’s voice.

The boy had expected that Hagrid would shut the door in his face, because of the incident with buckbeak, but instead he answered calmly: “She’s here.” Then he let the young wizard enter. Draco couldn’t suppress a grin: It looked as if Hermione had thought Harry and Ron had knocked and jumped up to leave. She knocked over the tea cup. “Surprise”, he said with a smile on his face. Hermione, who had frozen in shock, came back to life, she tried to dry her jeans and turned as red as a tomato. She shyly whispered: “Hi.” She looked so cute and Draco suddenly had the urge to kiss her. “Well…Since your friends don’t seem to be okay with us going on a date… I wanted to ask you if you want to go with someone else instead…”, he explained why he was here. “No!”, Hermione almost shouted surprisingly fast. “Fine”, Draco said and smiled at her.

Hagrid tried to ease the situation: “Why don’t you two stay a while and keep me company? There’s enough tea for three!” The students nodded and sat down. Draco broke the silence: “Pansy was also mad at me for asking you to be my date…” “Oh, I’m sorry”, Hermione said. “Looks like the universe is against us”, Draco laughed. Hagrid smiled: “Oh, I wouldn’t say so. Such jealousies are quite normal at your age.” Hermione thought: Jealousies? Did Ron want to go to the dance with her? When they were in Hogsmeade he did act strangely, but then the incident with Katie happened and she didn’t waste a thought on it.

Hagrid asked: “Did ya hear anything new from Katie?” Draco’s smile froze. How would Hermione react if she found out? No, no, she could never know! She would hate him… She would think, he wasn’t any better than his parents! “She’s better know. Next week she’ll come back to Hogwarts!”, the witch smiled. She was so glad that Hagrid was not against Draco. It gave her the courage she would need to settle the dispute with Harry. She felt consoled. 

After a while the students had to leave, they missed their first lesson, but they wanted to be on time for their second lesson. – Especially because their second lesson was potions with Professor Snape! Together they walked through the hallways. Hermione drooled over Draco.

Suddenly Draco stopped. Hermione was puzzled, he pointed upwards: A mistletoe was hanging from the ceiling. She smiled very very brightly, Draco pulled her towards him, caressed her cheek softly and put his lips on hers. It was not Hermione’s first kiss – the first had been with Victor Krumm – but it was better than all the kisses before. It felt as if pink, heart-shaped fireworks were exploding.

Slowly she freed herself and saw the disaster: Just as they had kissed, Harry and Ron had entered the hallway!


	10. Settling the dispute?

“What the bloody hell?!”, Ron and Harry said simultaneously. “Malfoy! Stop harassing Hermione!” Hermione looked at Draco. Draco looked at Hermione. Both wanted the same thing: Get as much distance as possible between them and the boys! So they hurried to get to the classroom. Then Hermione realized it wasn’t that easy to get away from them: She sat next to them in every lesson they had! She looked at Draco for help as they entered the classroom. He immediately understood what she wanted – needed, so he took her with him to his seat and told Crabbe and Goyle to move and make space for Hermione. Surprised the Slytherins looked at each other, but didn’t say anything, because they knew it would be better for them to shut up. After the fight with Pansy and the breakfast incident Draco was quite irritable.

Snape didn’t care at all, as soon as Hermione sat down he quickly went over to her and asked her in a harsh voice: “What do you think you’re doing? You sit there, where you usually sit! You don’t have any special rights, Miss Granger.” Blaise piped up: “Don’t you think it would cause unrest to let Granger sit with Potter and Weasley after what happened during breakfast?” Professor Snape couldn’t say anything against this. He couldn’t stand when students did not concentrate on his teaching – provoking another argument surely was not his intention. So he just nodded and went back to the teacher’s desk. Draco clapped on Blaise’s back: “Thanks mate!” “You’re welcome”, he grinned knowingly.

Harry and Ron entered the classroom just on time for the lesson to start. Hermione repeatedly caught herself looking over to them. Actually she didn’t have any reason to do so, she almost felt at home at the Slytherin table – except for Pansy’s jealous expression, Draco’s friends were all behaving well. Even though Draco had to throw some black looks at Crabbe and Goyle to keep them from mocking. After Hermione watched Crabbe’s despicable tries to brew the potion, she had mercy on him and tried to help him as good as possible. Draco laughed about her effort: “Stop trying, Hermione, I tried to help him a hundred times! He’s a dead loss! He won’t be a potion’s master!” Hermione gave him an angry stare: “Challenge accepted.” Draco smiled, she was glamorous and if Potter and Weaslebee weren’t in the same room watching them, he would have kissed her. He was in love…

After the lesson, Harry and Ron blocked her way out. “What’s going on, Hermione?”, they wanted to know and as Draco wanted to push them aside, to unblock the door, the boys added: “Malfoy, you stay right here! We clear this up right now! You can’t just harass Hermione and force her to sit with you like a lapdog! Who the hell do you think you are?!” Hermione sighed: “Draco did not `harass`me and I am not his lapdog!” “That looked quite differently a few minutes ago!”, Ron alleged. The witch rolled her eyes and gave up for now. The Slytherin chuckled… How could he not have noticed what a catch Hermione was??? Then Professor Snape interrupted them: “You can talk about your private problems elsewhere! Get out.”

They had to get to the next lesson and the hallways were filled with students they had to squeeze through. As Hermione arrived at the classroom, Draco was gone. She realized that they didn’t have divination together. He could’ve said goodbye at least, she thought, after all the fun they had and after their kiss. She was a little mortified. Ron of course felt the need to make a comment about it: “If your new boyfriend’s so great, why didn’t he say goodbye to you?” Hermione stuck out her tongue, turned away from him and started a petty talk with Lavender, she didn’t actually listen to her, she only pretended to do so. Her attention secretly still was with the boys and what they were saying about her. Ron made a grimace and told Harry: “Since she’s seen him that morning, she’s like another person! The old Hermione wouldn’t have done that! Neither stick out her tongue although I didn’t do anything, nor go out with him, nor let him kiss her! I want to old Hermione back! ...You don’t think he hexed her, do you?” They sat down on their seats. “That sounds really great”, Hermione said to herself. Ron’s words were the grist to Harry’s mill: “Of course he hexed her! We’re talking about Malfoy! She’s probably under the Imperius curse or else!” Harry was very sure that nothing else could turn Hermione’s head around like this. “HARRY!”, she called out angrily “Draco is not as bad as you always thought he was! He’s a student just like us! Get this into your stubborn head! And he did not use the Imperius on me! NOW SHUT UP! I can’t stand it!” All of the students were staring at her. None of them had ever her Hermione shout. Bite off Malfoy’s head – maybe, but not shouting at Harry! Especially not to defend Malfoy! “She’s got some serious issues...”, Ron whispered and got a look promising death from Hermione. The rest of the lesson they were more or less quiet to the girl’s relief. She had already been scared to curse them, because she was so angry.

After the lesson she wanted to escape quickly. She had to tell Ginny about her kiss with Draco! But Harry stopped her. “Hermione”, he cleared his throat “We… We’re sorry, that we raised cain this morning. But we just don’t want you to go to the dance with Malfoy. Seamus would be a great choice or maybe…” Harry couldn’t go on because Hermione interrupted him: “YOU don’t want ME to be Draco’s date for the dance?! That is MY decision and not yours! Stop this nonsense!” Harry looked at Ron, who shook his head: “You did your best.” Together they watched Hermione stamp away.

Hermione’s nerves were frazzled, she ran into her dormitory and started to cry. Couldn’t they see that she fell in love with Draco? How could anyone be this ignorant?! Sad and sobbing she sat on her bed until Ginny came in: “Oh no, they couldn’t leave it be, could they?” Of course she already knew what happened, Harry and Ron had told everyone in the common room. Most of the Gryffindors shut their mouths, but some students and especially the quidditch team were on their side, which had confirmed their beliefs. In Ron’s version of the story Malfoy had just kissed Hermione and she had screwed her face afterwards. Ginny was curious to hear the girl’s version.

She sat next to her friend and stroked her hair. Knowing that Hermione would be even more furious if she knew what had just taken place in their common room, she pretended to not know anything and just asked: “What exactly happened?” Between two sobs the witch told her best friend: “After the breakfast incident I went to visit Hagrid. Suddenly Draco turned up there and asked if I would like to be someone else’s date instead. He’s so understanding…” Ginny smiled: Hermione really was head over ears in love! The Gryffindor knew that Hermione declined, because she was in love. “Well… Afterwards we went over to the potion’s classroom and on our way there was a mistletoe. So we kissed and he’s an absolutely amazing kisser! Draco even made sure that I could sit with him”, she giggled “It was great. All of a sudden Zabini and even Crabbe and Goyle were nice to me!” Ginny had never ever seen Hermione like this.

Then the girl started sobbing again and Ginny hugged her: “What happened then?” “Harry and Ron stopped us: They said Draco had `harassed` me, but we had only kissed! Next I had to get to divination and Draco just left without saying goodbye!” This really seemed to bother Hermione. No wonder. After all this trouble, she deserved to get a nice goodbye, Ginny thought. “In Divination they even said he used the Imperius on me!”, she told her “I kind of… shouted at them.” Her face turned red. “After the lesson Harry said sorry, but then the greatest impudence came!” Hermione aped Harry: “’ But we just don’t want you to go to the dance with Malfoy.” Ginny laughed, her laugh was infectious. “See? You can still laugh! Can’t be that bad, can it? Shall I try and talk some sense into them?”, she asked. Hermione nodded thankfully.


	11. The Christmasball

The day before the dance Ginny was still unable to talk some sense into Harry and Ron. They did not want to accept that Hermione could find Malfoy the least bit sympathetic or even be in love with him. Even Ginny’s try to bribe them with Molly’s selfmade cupcakes failed. They didn’t just refuse to see Hermione’s feelings for Draco but had started to ignore her.

Hermione tried to forget her two old friends and distract herself with Draco. He could be a hopeless romantic: One night he had led her up the astronomy tower, looked at the stars with her, kissed her in the moonlight and given her a silver necklace with a lion. The girl was very sure that the necklace had cost a fortune and she had actually told him to not gift her such valuable things. She was so in love and even Ginny seemed to get annoyed by her rhapsody.

It had snowed over night, today was the day of the christmasball and Hermione was very very excited. She got out of bed, tamed her hair, got dressed and put on the necklace Draco had gifted her proudly and cheerfully went to breakfast. She had gotten used to sitting at the Slytherin table, because she was an outsider in her own house. Harry and Ron would demonstratively sit at the other end of the table and Katie had – after Harry convinced her, the necklace incident had been Draco’s fault – started some kind of hate campaign against her. Cormac McLaggen, who had a crush on Hermione, had helped her hoping to drive Draco and her apart. Inofficially she was a traitor.  
So she sat at the Slytherin table. Pansy threw some jealous looks at her as she gave Draco a good morning kiss and ruffled his hair. The other Slytherins had started to accept the girl as one of theirs, instead of just being nice because Draco told them to. Vincent and Gregory shared their sweets with her, she often did her homework with Blaise and she even had an insider joke with Graham Montague, the new captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team.

She sat on Draco’s lap and smiled at him. “I’m really looking forward to this evening, my sweet Hermione”, Draco whispered in her ear and kissed her neck. She was in heaven. Even Pansy’s looks didn’t bother her. This evening would be perfect. One week ago she had gone shopping with Draco. Actually she had wanted to buy a lavender dress, but then the shop keeper said green would really suit her. Draco had only grinned as they had left the shop with a Slytherin green dress with a silver scarf.

After breakfast they went for a walk outside, as Hermione got cold, he put her jacket around her and she giggled and bit her lip. Draco thought about how sexy she was, when she did that, so he kissed her.  
Suddenly something hit his head, puzzled he looked around. Then Hermione also got hit. Blaise was standing a few metres away and provocatively threw a snowball into the air. Behind the trees he could see Vincent and Gregory. Hermione burst out in laughter, bent over, took some snow and made a snowball. Afterwards she threw it at Blaise, but missed him. The boy stuck out his tongue. Vincent and Gregory threw at them simultaneously. Now Draco made a snowball and threw it – he was a lot more unerring than Hermione and soon all of the attackers had been hit. One of the boys had sneaked behind the girl and put snow into her face. Hermione laughed and Draco enjoyed seeing her this happy. While trying to put snow in Draco’s face, they fell over and could only stop laughing as they closed their lips with a kiss.

After the snowball fight they were all cold and went back into the castle to the Slytherin common room. At the beginning Hermione had not liked the room, the silver made it look cold, a lot less cozy than her own common room. But as the common room filled with nice memories, she became more comfortable there. They drank hot tea and sat next to the fireplace to get warm. The students forgot the time and missed lunch – which wasn’t a problem: Vincent and Gregory were welcome guests in the kitchen with the house elves. They appreciated the food and got snacks there nearly every day. After a few cupcakes, Hermione got back to her common room. She entered the room in a great mood, which probably wouldn’t have stayed long under her fellow student’s looks. So she whizzed into her dorm room.

Ginny and Lavender were the only ones in their dorm, the redhead was just about to get the curlers out of Lavender’s hair. Soon the ball would begin. Hermione snatched her green dress out of her wardrobe and put it on. The other girls were pretty amazed, excited they started to giggle. Ginny agreed with the shop owner: Hermione looked incredible in this shade of green! But she also looked good in her spring-green dress and Lavender was pretty in her dark blue dress. The girls did each others hair and it was time to go downstairs.

Hermione slowly strided down the stairs with Ginny. Draco was already downstairs waiting for her, looking up to her. He was wearing a suit and had a red rose in his hand. He admired her: Although he knew nothing about hairstyles, he could see Hermione’s must have been effortful. “You look beautiful!”, he said delighted, bowed a little and handed over the rose. The girl blushed and put it on her dress. They entered the half filled ball room. All eyes were on them. The Slytherin prince and Harry Potter’s best friend. The students still had not gotten used to this sight. Hermione looked around, Ginny was smiling at her. The choir, who had introduced the ball was finished and the music started to play. Hermione snuggled Draco and they started to dance slowly. Happily she looked deep into his grey eyes.

But then Harry and Cho together with Ron and Lavender caught her eye. The two girls were smiling at them. The Ravenclaw’s didn’t bear the Slytherin’s a grudge. However, the way the boys looked at them was… worse than ever before. Hermione had never been stared at this angry – despite of the happenings of the last weeks! She needed to get out of here! She pulled the baffled Slytherin out of the ball room outside. She shuddered, but not because of the cold. “Hey, don’t let them ruin our evening”, Draco said quietly. A tear rolled down her cheek, he wiped it away: “Sweetie, they are not worth crying about.” He hugged her and Hermione felt soothed.

So they went back inside over to the buffet to talk to Vincent and Gregory and get some butter beer. Ron and Harry come over, Lavender tried to stop them, withhold them, but it was already too late. By now Ron had drunk a butterbeer too much and talked smack to them: “Slytherin colours now is it? Why don’t you officially defect to Slytherin?!” Harry joined in: “To your death eater boyfriend!” Cho and Lavender looked at each other dismayed: That was not how they had imagined this evening! They were ashamed of their dates! Hermione clenched her fists: death eater – that hit a sore spot! Draco was raging on the inside – but managed to keep cool on the outside: “Leave Hermione alone.” He was just about to pull Hermione outside, as Harry said: “Admit it! You don’t even like her! You jus’ wanna tear us apart!” Ron added swaying: “But you can’t do that! Hermione belongs to us! Come over and fight, if she’s that important to you!” He swung his fists around wildly. Draco really wanted to punch him in the face. Magic didn’t matter now, this fight wanted to be fought with fists! And he would enjoy giving Weasley what he deserved! Milliseconds before Ron would have gone down by his fist, he was stopped.

Two things happened at the same time: Hermione ran outside, lost a shoe while running, making her look like the princess in the fairytale. He reminded himself: Cinderella, that’s what the princess was called. Hermione had read the muggle-story to him once. He smiled, his princess…  
But Draco could not gaze after his princess for long, because in the same instant Neville appeared behind Ron and Harry. In the first moment the young man had thought: “Oh shit, not him too!” But he was wrong: Neville dragged his friends away from him. He shouted: “You can’t behave like that! Wake up! Hermione is your friend, you can’t keep acting like that! We don’t have a ball every week – we all have the right to have a nice evening, Hermione too! You almost ruined it! Get yourself together and say sorry!” With these words he threw the two troublemakers out of the Great Hall. The puzzled boys picked themselves up and ran away.

Draco went over to Neville: “Thanks, mate! I swear I was just about to… You really saved the day!” He padded his back acknowledgingly: “I’ll never forget that! I’ll go and search for Hermione…” Luna, who was Neville’s date and had been standing next to him said: “We’re coming with you. Looks like she could use a friend or two.” The Slytherin picked up his girl’s shoe and they wandered through the castle: “Hermione! Where are you?” Soon they found her, the girl was standing at a window looking at the stars. It looked like she wished to be elsewhere. “Here’s your shoe, my princess”, Draco grinned. She smiled slightly and asked Luna and Neville: “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be having fun at the ball?” Draco told her the whole story: “Neville is today’s hero! You should’ve seen that: He threw them out, shouting at them! Just before we started beating each other…” Hermione retrieved her bright smile and laughed: “I would have liked to see that!”

They went back to the ball room, finally drank their butterbeer, celebrated Neville as their hero and danced until their feet hurt. Even Cho and Lavender’s evening wasn’t ruined: Since both their dates were gone they danced with each other.


End file.
